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AIM To compare the cardiovascular risks between users and non-users of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors based on electronic medical record data from a large integrated healthcare system in South Louisiana. MATERIALS AND METHODS Demographic, anthropometric, laboratory and medication prescription information for patients with type 2 diabetes who were new users of SGLT2 inhibitors, either as initial treatments or as add-on treatments, were obtained from electronic health records. Mediation analysis was performed to evaluate the association of use of SGLT2 inhibitors and changes of metabolic risk factors with the risk of incident ischaemic heart disease. RESULTS A total of 5338 new users of SGLT2 inhibitors were matched with 13 821 non-users. During a mean follow-up of 3.26 years, 2302 incident cases of ischaemic heart disease were defined. After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, patients using SGLT2 inhibitors had a lower risk of incident ischaemic heart disease compared to patients not using SGLT2 inhibitors (hazard ratio [HR] 0.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54-0.73). Patients using SGLT2 inhibitors also had a lower risk of incident ischaemic heart disease within 6 months (HR 0.36, 95% CI 0.25-0.44), 12 months (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.32-0.49), 24 months (HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.43-0.60) and 36 months (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.54-0.73), respectively. Reductions in systolic blood pressure partly mediated lowering risk of ischaemic heart disease among patients using SGLT2 inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS The real-world data in the present study show the contribution of SGLT2 inhibitors to reducing risk of ischaemic heart disease, and their benefits beyond glucose-lowering.

Patients with diabetes have a 10-fold higher risk of lower-extremity amputation (LEA) than people without diabetes (1). LEA is associated with the greatest reduction in quality of life and the greatest increase in mortality and medical costs in all diabetes complications. Previous studies suggested that the mean hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was associated with an increased LEA risk among patients with type 2 diabetes (2). However, emerging evidence indicates that long-term glycemic variability evaluated by clinical visit-to-visit HbA1c variability may be a better predictor of diabetes complications (3). So far, the definitions of long-term HbA1c variability are inconsistent. In most studies, standard deviation of serial HbA1c measurements (HbA1c SD) and the intrapersonal coefficient of variation of HbA1c (HbA1c CV) are often used to represent HbA1c variability. In the current study, we added a new marker—HbA1c variability score (HVS) (4)—which is more easily applied to clinical practice. We collected data from electronic health records for patients with type 2 diabetes between 2013 and 2019 in the Louisiana Experiment Assessing Diabetes outcomes (LEAD) cohort study (5). We excluded patients who had LEA diagnosis before entry and within 2 years after the first date of diabetes diagnosis, those with incomplete baseline data, those who did not have at least four HbA1c tests within 2 …

Context The comfort of patients with cancer near the end of life (EOL) is often undermined by unnecessary and burdensome treatments. There is a need for more research examining racial disparities in EOL care, especially in regions with a history of racial discrimination. Objectives To examine whether black adults received more burdensome EOL care than white adults in a population-based data set of cancer decedents in Louisiana, a state with a history of slavery and long-standing racial disparities. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of EOL care from the Research Action for Health Network (REACHnet), a regional Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute-funded database. The sample consisted of 875 white and 415 black patients with metastatic cancer who died in Louisiana from 2011 to 2017. We used logistic regression to examine whether race was associated with five indicators of burdensome care in the last 30 days of life: chemotherapy use, inpatient hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, emergency department (ED) admission, and mechanical ventilation. Results Most patients (85.0%) received at least one indicator of burdensome care: hospitalization (76.5%), intensive care unit admission (44.1%), chemotherapy (29.1%), mechanical ventilation (23.0%), and ED admission (18.3%). Odds ratios (ORs) indicated that black individuals were more likely than white individuals to be hospitalized (OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.21–2.28; P = 0.002) or admitted to the ED (OR = 1.57; 95% CI = 1.16–2.13; P = 0.004) during their last month of life. Conclusion Findings have implications for informing health care decision making near the EOL for patients, families, and clinicians, especially in regions with a history of racial discrimination and disparities.

A comparison of postoperative metabolic and nutritional responses to different hypocaloric parenteral nutrition supports was performed in 42 patients with various gastric lesions. Sixteen patients (group A) received 3000 mL of a 5% glucose in water or glucose in saline infusion per day after surgery (approximately 10 kcal/kg per day). Another 14 patients (group B) received 2000 mL of 5% glucose in water or saline plus 1000 mL of 5% amino acid solution per day (approximately 10 kcal/kg per day and 1 g of protein per kilogram per day). The other 12 patients (group C) received 2000 mL of 5% glucose in water or saline plus 500 mL of 5% amino acid solution and 500 mL of 10% fat emulsion (approximately 20 kcal/kg per day and 0.5 g of protein per kilogram per day). After 7 days of study, all three groups were found to have a decrease in body weight, mid-arm circumference, triceps skin-fold, and serum albumin level, and the differences among them were not significant. Groups B and C had significantly less negative mean nitrogen balance than group A (-5.54 +/- 0.63 g/d and -6.07 +/- 0.49 g/d vs -9.20 +/- 0.68 g/d). Group B also had a significantly greater increase of transferrin (from 175.5 +/- 9.9 mg/dL to 185.4 +/- 9.3 mg/dL) than group A and a significantly greater increase in total lymphocyte count (from 956 +/- 113 cells/mm3 to 1196 +/- 176 cells/mm3) than groups A and C.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)